Thread by @pmdfoster

🚨🚨🇬🇧🇪🇺🎓🚌🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇹🎓🚌🇪🇺🇬🇧🚨🚨IT’S OUT: my latest #brexit briefing.

School trips to Britain put at risk by EU passport rule change via @FT tl;dr…stopping EU kids using ID cards will help erode U.K. bond with EU warn travel groups. 😢

Stay with me /1
on.ft.com/3CikSsL

@FT This is one of those stories where the impact of #Brexit is not quantified in £s or euros...but in the gradual building up of barriers between the EU and the UK.

In this case, stopping use of EU ID cards for travel into UK...which will hit EU school trips /2

@FT It might not seem like a big deal, requiring everyone has a passport to enter UK, but in practice companies that organise school trips -- one of the cheapest and earlies forms of cultural exposure -- say it will hit them hard/3

@FT They wrote to @BorisJohnson in April warning of the impact -- since in many countries like France and Germany the policy is 'all go or no go'...so if one kid has only an ID card, or a non-EU kid that needs a visa...then, unless they get passport/visas the class can't go/4

@FT @BorisJohnson The EU had a “List of Travellers” scheme to enable non-EU children to travel with their group without a visa. That’s been stopped by the Home Office too.

The reason? Security apparently. EU ID cards are not secure. /5

@FT @BorisJohnson But as Antoine Bretin, @antoinebretin the youth stays director at the language exchange group Verdié Hello @VerdieHello and cosignatory of the letter observed in exasperation to the Briefing, “you don’t get many terrorists travelling in school groups”. /6

@FT @BorisJohnson @antoinebretin @VerdieHello And the reality is that people -- like goods and services -- take the line of least resistance. It's not as if there are not plenty inside the EU -- Florence, Madrid, Vienna, Paris ...all make a good school trip destination. /7

@FT @BorisJohnson @antoinebretin @VerdieHello There will be as Susan Jones of @Linguastay_RP_C explains a financial cost to this... families that host kids, tourism destinations (that take about 50% of trip spend) will all feel a bit. /8

But it's the cultural cost. ONS reckons trade will be 15% down long term...so what does a 15% hit to cultural exchange means....over the longer term, in terms of understanding, exposure and contacts with the near-neighbourhood? Who knows. But it's got to be negative/9

Labour Peer Philip Hunt thought it was a “depressing advert for global Britain” that he felt to be “shortsighted . . . petty and mean-spirited”.... I guess some will think it's the plan, but @BorisJohnson
has always said we're leaving the EU, not Europe/10
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/e7…

@BorisJohnson But these policies -- the Home Office is implacable it will not look at exemptions for U18s -- will have that effect. They'll see put barriers with the UK's neighbourhood...to what effect, we'll have to wait and see. ENDS

Petition here btw

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/5877…